Where can I find the original treat?
- This specialty churro was part of the “Get Your Ears On” celebration found near the Haunted Mansion at the Disneyland resort.
I’ll start this post by putting it out there that I’m not a big banana dessert fan. Sure, I’ll eat a straight up banana, but when presented with any kind of dessert where the banana is transformed into something else… hard pass. So, I was definitely a little hesitant to even try this churro at the park. But, I’m glad I did because I ended up surprisingly liking it. So, now we have the third recipe for #ChurroMonth here on the site: Banana Pudding Churros.
This specialty churro had people divided. There were those who really enjoyed it, like myself, and there were those who hated this churro (with lots of vomiting emoji faces to state their case). A big reason for this might have been that people complained that the banana pudding was sour. And, well, it kinda was in a weird way. I have a feeling it could have been too much of a preservative added in because it seemed like it was heavy on citric acid. Or it could have been a stabilizer, but alas, I never asked anyone about it so I don’t conclusively know.
Like I’ve said in previous posts, since all these recipes are “inspired” and not straight copycat recipes, I can take a cue from the audience and make sure that our banana pudding is not sour. I mean, if you did like that sourness you can buy citric acid in bulk on Amazon or crush up a vitamin C pill and you’ll have done the trick.
This recipe works because of the two components: shortbread crusted churros and banana pudding. Separate they are lacking, but together they are just delicious. The buttery, not too sweet shortbread gets a lift in flavor from the sweet, banana pudding. And I’ll note also that we are not making the banana pudding from scratch, although, if you have a recipe you love and want to make that here, by all means, please do. For me, I’ve stuck to box pudding and am totally OK with it.
So, if you were a fan, I hope you enjoy this week’s churro recipe, and if you were not convinced at the parks, well, I hope you try my recipe and change your mind. Enjoy!
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Banana Pudding Churros
- Yield: 16–18 churros 1x
Description
Buttery, slightly sweet shortbread cookie crumbs cover the classic cinnamon-sugar churro accompanied by sweet banana pudding dipping sauce. A Disneyland-inspired treat.
Ingredients
Toppings:
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 156 grams of shortbread cookies, crushed (I used an entire bag of Pepperidge Farm shortbread cookies, homemade also OK here)
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
Churro:
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- big pinch of salt
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- vegetable oil for frying
Banana Pudding Dip
- 1 package of instant Banana Pudding (I used Jell-O brand Banana Cream)
Tools:
Instructions
For the banana pudding:
- Make banana pudding according to instructions. Chill, covered, in the refrigerator until ready to use.
For the toppings:
- Line two half sized sheet pans with parchment, set aside. Mix together 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and cinnamon in a long shallow bowl or loaf pan, set aside.
- Crush cookies in a ziplock bag with a rolling pin until finely ground. Alternatively, you can pulse in a food processor until a sand-like consistency forms. Combine with melted butter until all butter is absorbed. Place in a long shallow bowl or loaf pan, set aside.
For the churros:
- In a medium sized saucepan over medium-high heat, combine water, butter, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, or until butter has melted.
- Turn burner to low and pour in all the flour at once. Stir until there are no visible flour lumps and dough has begun to stick together in a ball and pulled away from the sides of the pan.
- Remove pan from heat and let sit 5 minutes. Then stir in each egg until incorporated. Dough will appear to break or become lumpy. Continue to stir until it forms a smooth, sticky dough.
- Fill a pastry bag fitted with a Wilton 1 M open star tip half full with batter (see notes below on filling pastry bags) and pipe 8″ long dough onto the sheet pan. I was able to fill two sheet pans with all the batter.
- Refrigerate dough at least 30 minutes and up to two days. Batter will stiffen the more it sits, so let the dough come to room temperature before frying. (Note below for frying immediately after making dough)
- Fill a dutch oven or deep frying pan with vegetable oil at least 2″ up the side of the pan (I found a 1/2 gallon of avocado oil worked for me in my large dutch oven. See note below about reusing oil.). Heat oil to 340-350°f, using a candy thermometer to keep the temperature constant. You may need to adjust heat up or down during cooking.
- Place churros 2-3 at a time in the cooking oil for 6 minutes, turning after 3 minutes with a spatula or spider. Wait until oil comes back to temperature before adding next batch.
- Using a spider or large spatula, remove churros from oil and drain on a cooling rack over parchment or on a paper towel. Wait at least a minute and then toss the churro in the cinnamon sugar, tapping off any excess. Then roll churro in the cookie crumbs, lightly pressing to adhere. Set churro aside. Repeat with all the churros.
- When ready to eat, dip each churro in the banana pudding. Enjoy!
Notes
- Do not overfill your pastry bag! Fill in two to three batches. If there is too much dough, it will seep out the top and will be hard to pipe.
- Slowly pipe out dough all of a consistent size, smaller spots on the churro can cause them to become more fragile while handling and can break in the oil or while coating in sugar.
- Churro dough can be piped out onto parchment and covered in the fridge up to 48 hours.
- If you want to make you churros immediately after making dough without the chilling time, once oil has reached temp, starting about one inch above the oil, pipe a small line of dough down into oil and either snip end with scissors, or break the dough off the pastry tip on the side of your pan. Follow directions above for frying.
- Thicker churros will require a longer cooking time to fully cook through the center. Test one churro first to adjust your cooking time.
- Cooking oil can be fine strained and stored again for another use. I strain back into the bottle it came from. Well strained oil can be stored in a cool, dry place and used up to several times.
- Churros curling? That could be one of a few reasons. One is that it will naturally shrink and change shape as the dough hits the oil and puffs up. I found that the stiffer dough from sitting in the fridge resulted in straighter churros while fresher dough tending to curl more. Also, if you’re using a circular pot like a dutch oven, churros may rest against the inside edge of the pan while cooking causing them to take on the curved shape of the pan. To prevent this, nudge your churro with the spider or spatula immediately after placing in oil when it pops back up to the surface. Continue to nudge gently back and forth for about 20-40 seconds or until the dough has gotten stiff in the oil.
Keywords: treat, churro, banana, shortbread
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